Friday, June 20

I love bee’s. I don’t know what it is about them but they really fascinate me. They are such busy little organized things and work so well together. We all depend on them.

One of our church leaders, M. Russell Ballard gave a talk called Anxiously Engaged. He discusses Bee’s and their purpose and how it can compare to our lives.

“Honeybees are driven to pollinate, gather nectar, and condense the nectar into honey. It is their magnificent obsession imprinted into their genetic makeup by our Creator. It is estimated that to produce just one pound (0.45 kg) of honey, the average hive of 20,000 to 60,000 bees must collectively visit millions of flowers and travel the equivalent of two times around the world. Over its short lifetime of just a few weeks to four months, a single honeybee’s contribution of honey to its hive is a mere one-twelfth of one teaspoon.

Though seemingly insignificant when compared to the total, each bee’s one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey is vital to the life of the hive. The bees depend on each other. Work that would be overwhelming for a few bees to do becomes lighter because all of the bees faithfully do their part.”

The beehive has always been an important symbol in our Church history. Brigham Young chose the beehive as a symbol to encourage and inspire the cooperative energy necessary among the pioneers to transform the barren desert wasteland surrounding the Great Salt Lake into the fertile valleys we have today. We are the beneficiaries of their collective vision and industry.

The beehive symbol is found in both the interiors and exteriors of many of our temples.

All of this symbolism attests to one fact: great things are brought about and burdens are lightened through the efforts of many hands “anxiously engaged in a good cause” (D&C 58:27). You can read the entire talk HERE.

I grabbed my camera and watched the bee’s buzzing around my lavender. They will be here all summer. I snapped several shots of the busy little things as they fulled their need to gather nectar to take to the hive.